Local News

Dallas Tiny Home Community Will House 50 ‘Expensive’ Homeless People

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Tony Maples Photography

 

The Cottages at Hickory Crossing will hold 50 tiny homes that will house Dallas’ homeless. The $5 million project will provide 50 homeless people with a 339 square foot abode. Though it may sound expensive, officials are saying that it will actually save money in the long run.

Due to arrests, long stays in jail and trips to the emergency room, some homeless people can accumulate about $40,000 in costs a year. The Cottages at Hickory Crossing will only cost $12,500 – $15,000 per person in a year and provide residents with case workers and psychiatric help on site.

Chad Baker, assistant director at Central Dallas Community Development Corporation who is developing the project, told KERA News, “We started with what the county called the ‘frequent fliers,’ so to speak when it comes to the ones being arrested and going to Parkland [emergency room].”

Executive director of the development group, John Greenan said, “We aren’t giving people houses because they deserve it, we’re giving them places to live because they are fellow human beings and fellow citizens of the city. We don’t think anybody in a city as wealthy as Dallas should be sleeping on the streets.”

It will be difficult to choose who gets to live in these homes when there are so many in need, but Cottages at Hickory Crossing should be a great place to start changing the lives of 50 Dallas residents.